Lately, the Council of Ministers conducted its 78th regular meeting and reviewed the Draft Proclamation meant to grant a legal personality to the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC). After reviewing the draft, the Council has referred it to the Parliament.
At a press conference organized to brief journalists on the draft law, Supreme Council’s President, Mufti Haji Umer Endris told journalists that the question for a legal personality of the EIASC has been raised since the time of Emperor Haileselassie I. However, it has not been considered in good light for decades.
Presenting the draft proclamation to the House, Government Whip Amb. Mesfin Cherinet stated that countries give legal personalities to religious administrative institutions for various reasons. The exercise of freedom of religion and the right to establish religious institutions could be in this regard.
He said in view of Islam’s long history in Ethiopia and seeing the large number of its followers, it is appropriate to give a legal personality to the Council.
According to him, Ethiopia is the first nation to embrace Islam and it is also a land where the first Muslim refugees were sheltered.
Giving legal personality for the Council does not stand in contradiction to the rights of any Ethiopian or followers of any religion, he said.
Islamic Scholar and a Lawyer, Ustaz Kamil Shemsu also told The Ethiopian Herald that registering the Council as an ordinary association without a strong legal foundation has been causing several problems.
“The council has been renewing its license as an ordinary association every two or three years,”
Speaking on the benefits, he said the law would tackle challenges the Council has been facing. To mention but a few, it has been tough to establish other organizations under the umbrella of the Council; government’s intervention has also been witnessed in various times and the implication of registering as an association on the Council’s right to property is enormous.
He said that government’s current decision to give legal personality for the Council is; therefore, one of the fruits of the ongoing national reforms.
As stated on the draft proclamation, religious institutions enable their followers to practice their religion freely. In this regard, having a legal personality gives the institutions and their followers’ better advantages.
Religious institutions that get legal personalities have the right to property, to enter into contract, to sue and to be sued or other related issues. If institutions do not have legal personality, they will be exposed to variety of problems in their interaction with government, other institutions, and individuals.
Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (Mejlis) was established on April 6, 1975 (Rebi Ul Awal 12, 1395). However, despite its age, the Council has not got legal personality.
Art 27 (2) of the FDRE’s Constitution states that “… Believers may establish institutions of religious education and administration in order to propagate and organize their religion.
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 28 February 2020
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
